Personal Experience with COVID?

[GreenLantern]

My house finally got it. As a front line worker I figured we already had it at some point to be honest. We’ve had worse colds over the past few years, but it’s still pretty rough. Worst part is my two year old has it pretty bad, probably the worst of all of us. I’d trade all my sleep for her to be able to go 10 minutes without coughing at night.

The only one who’s 100% is the five year old. Just turned five so he hasn’t had a single dose yet. He’s got more energy than normal it even seems. Got it from their daycare, the family got it then closed the daycare… but obviously to late.

My wife and I are both triple vaccinated. Tired AF. Have to switch off sleeping while the other struggles through the kids. Lots more coughing today.

Day 1 I did a full work out before I tested, just felt like a cold, and was fine. I think if I tried today though I’d pass out.

This would technically be day four, so my work says I’m good to return as of tomorrow lol, sure doesn’t feel that way.

[Ashartus]

My family got it too (adults with 3 doses, kids with 2), one of the kids got it probably at school and it spread through the house. Most of us it was really just like a cold, at first we didn't think it was Covid and probably weren't as careful as we should have been. Daughter had it first and tested negative initially. I got it next and tested positive, at which point my daughter and wife tested positive too (wife was asymptomatic and only tested because I was positive). Son got it a few days later. My wife (otherwise asymptomatic) and son both found their sense of taste was affected for a few days.


My cold symptoms only lasted about 4 days, but for a few more days I got really tired in the afternoons. Even now (~10 days after initial symptoms) I don't think my energy level is 100%.

[photon]

My kid finally got it after my wife had it for the 2nd time (I've still not had it). Had it the week right before diplomas, good thing I checked the website for dates otherwise he would have had a pretty big surprise tomorrow.

[GreenLantern]

Originally Posted by photon

My kid finally got it after my wife had it for the 2nd time (I've still not had it). Had it the week right before diplomas, good thing I checked the website for dates otherwise he would have had a pretty big surprise tomorrow.

How far apart were her cases photon? I have a friend who just got it for the second time as well. He had OG Covid in the summer of 2020, and now two years later has tested positive again, with much milder symptoms than the first time..

[photon]

She had it in Dec/Jan the first time, so it could have been Omicron by that point I think? Then she had it a few weeks ago.

[Hack&Lube]

So this is very odd, but one of my family members has muscular dystrophy affecting most motor skills in the hands and locomotion in the legs. After a bout with Covid, they got all their strength back and were able to do activities they normally were not able to do. Waiting to see if this is a temporary effect, possibly some kind of heightened immune response. Its the only positive thing I have ever heard to come out of recovery from Covid.

[TorqueDog]

... therapeutic COVID!

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

So this is very odd, but one of my family members has muscular dystrophy affecting most motor skills in the hands and locomotion in the legs. After a bout with Covid, they got all their strength back and were able to do activities they normally were not able to do. Waiting to see if this is a temporary effect, possibly some kind of heightened immune response. Its the only positive thing I have ever heard to come out of recovery from Covid.

So...they became COVID Hulk?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

So this is very odd, but one of my family members has muscular dystrophy affecting most motor skills in the hands and locomotion in the legs. After a bout with Covid, they got all their strength back and were able to do activities they normally were not able to do. Waiting to see if this is a temporary effect, possibly some kind of heightened immune response. Its the only positive thing I have ever heard to come out of recovery from Covid.

That is super interesting! Hopefully they do some research on the mechanism of that, because it would be very exciting to have new treatments for muscular dystrophy!

[_Q_]

On my flight home from France 2 weeks ago, I sat beside some girl that was coughing up a lung that she "swore was just like allergies, because OMG I would literally never be out in public with COVID."

Well as soon as we got home, my wife and i got sick with what felt like a mild cold. 2 days later, I completely lost my sense of taste and my wife ended up with a fever. So we both tested and sure enough we were positive for COVID.

Honestly, for me, it wasn't that bad. I'm double vaxxed. It was just 4 days of runny nose, 2 days of zero taste and smell then another 5 days of blunted smell and taste. Maybe mildly lethargic for 2 days, though I pegged it more to jet lag than COVID. I just kept working though it (remotely).

I think my wife got it worse as she had a different vaccine than me. She was feeling like garbage for 5 days and still has a bit of a lingering cough.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by _Q_

On my flight home from France 2 weeks ago, I sat beside some girl that was coughing up a lung that she "swore was just like allergies, because OMG I would literally never be out in public with COVID."

Well as soon as we got home, my wife and i got sick with what felt like a mild cold. 2 days later, I completely lost my sense of taste and my wife ended up with a fever. So we both tested and sure enough we were positive for COVID.

Honestly, for me, it wasn't that bad. I'm double vaxxed. It was just 4 days of runny nose, 2 days of zero taste and smell then another 5 days of blunted smell and taste. Maybe mildly lethargic for 2 days, though I pegged it more to jet lag than COVID. I just kept working though it (remotely).

I think my wife got it worse as she had a different vaccine than me. She was feeling like garbage for 5 days and still has a bit of a lingering cough.

Just curious what quality mask you had on?

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Just curious what quality mask you had on?

It was a blue and white medical mask that you get in a pack of 50.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by _Q_

On my flight home from France 2 weeks ago, I sat beside some girl that was coughing up a lung that she "swore was just like allergies, because OMG I would literally never be out in public with COVID."

Well as soon as we got home, my wife and i got sick with what felt like a mild cold. 2 days later, I completely lost my sense of taste and my wife ended up with a fever. So we both tested and sure enough we were positive for COVID.

Honestly, for me, it wasn't that bad. I'm double vaxxed. It was just 4 days of runny nose, 2 days of zero taste and smell then another 5 days of blunted smell and taste. Maybe mildly lethargic for 2 days, though I pegged it more to jet lag than COVID. I just kept working though it (remotely).

I think my wife got it worse as she had a different vaccine than me. She was feeling like garbage for 5 days and still has a bit of a lingering cough.

Back in October I was on a US flight departing from Florida, beside a lady that was hacking up a lung and devoured an *entire* package of halls during a 3 hour flight.

I'm sure she had covid and that I didn't catch it because I was wearing a N99.

[Flames0910]

I think my wife got it worse as she had a different vaccine than me. She was feeling like garbage for 5 days and still has a bit of a lingering cough.

Think you need to be careful with statements like this. You cannot know the difference was due to a less effective vaccine when there are so many other factors that could have influenced your wife's experience with COVID compared to your own.

Her immune system is different, she could have a less effective mask fit, she could have breathed it in more deeply, she could have other risk factors, or it could just be as simple as plain bad luck.

[DoubleF]

Covid blew through my family. Spent the last two weeks recovering. It sucked.

Started with the kids, wife and I started testing positive around 2-3 days of being with them after they tested positive (we had left them with grandparents for a date day when it was first discovered).

Triple vaccinated for all adults, grandparents both have an extra booster dose because of age. Sorry for the info dump. Hopefully someone finds the info useful though and the approach we took might be helpful in making others comfortable if you end up unfortunately to be in the same situation.

Testing:
If day 1 was when we discovered the kids were positive, I finally tested positive on day 4, wife tested positive on day 3, grandparents both tested positive day 2. Wife and I started testing negative again 2-3 days later on day 6/7 ish.

Energy:
Grandpa, wife and myself started getting insanely lethargic starting day 2. Like increased daily sleep from a normal of 6-8 hours to 50% on day 2 (9-12 hours) to essentially more than double through days 3-6 (12-18 hours) just to feel normal and back to 10-12 hours a day range for days 7-10. Grandma was a weirdo (thank god). She slept 25% than normal and seemed to have almost 50% to double her normal energy levels. She was basically bouncing off the walls with energy like someone after drinking 2-3 energy drinks. She watched the kids.

Both kids had a day or two of sustained fevers 39C+. Around 2-3 days of sustained temps in the 38C+ range excluding the 39C+ temps. Their sleep increase was probably around 50% sustained over the two weeks. Their energy levels relatively normal with the exception of being lethargic on the 39C+ high fever day.

Overall symptoms:
- Lethargy ++++
- Sore muscles/joints
- Smell (retained), but you could smell that "sickness smell"
- Sneezing ->Acidic onion nose feeling/smell
- Mild fever/chills
- Mild cough (mucus, not dry)
- Thick AF mucus/lots of looser mucus -> Laryngitis
- Headache/migraines (weather migraines amped up?)
- Mental cloudiness from lethargy (not really brain fog)
- Low appetite
- Muffled sound -> Ear pain (suspected evolution to ear infection)
- Sore throat*
- Winded/Shortness of breath*

Grandma (weirdo):
- Mild cough early on (dry cough)
- Mild tiredness early on
- Hyper activeness

I'd say for me, symptoms wise, most days was like one of the worst hangovers ever with a day or two where it rivaled but didn't exceed the worst flu/cold I have ever had. The maximum symptoms in our cases also never exceeded the reactions from the vaccine. However, those feelings don't typically last for more than a day and for this all of us basically lasted like 6-9 days, so the overall Covid illness experience was worse by far.

Crazy thick mucus made us lose our voices or sound ultra deep like a chain smoker. Cough wise, it didn't feel like a dry cough where we needed to cough. It was more mucus choking cough. Sore throat wise, never really had it throughout the experience. Only around day 7+ did we have sore and it seemed more to do with coughing from choking or trying to clear out the mucus. Like, no pain eating, swallowing etc. but painful clearing throat, so we suspect it was more "damage" from the cough than internal inflammation from the illness?

Only my wife had shortness of breath, but she said it mainly happened when she went up and down the stairs. Due to the lethargy and low energy levels, she admitted it was more like being winded after working out hard rather than just randomly being unable to breathe.

Energy wise, I'd put it like the worst hangover thing. I didn't even really want to sit around and play games, I just wanted to lie down and/or sleep. This was the same for our situations until around day 6+.

Treatment/prevention/quarantine:
Based on the suggestions of others, beyond the typical "lots of liquids and rest", we added a few things:

- Kept home as clean as possible, opened windows for fresh air and sunlight lots to attempt to reduce germs in general in the air (so our body didn't have to fight as many different things at once was the thought process). Basic things, but stopped short of sanitizing as we just didn't have the energy.
- One person per room. This in theory to keep any individual's viral load from spiking too high due to potential viral load concentration in air in any room. Wife and I took turns sleeping in guest room.
- No masking in home (I did this in the past with comfy cloth masks to reduce potential of any illness from rest of fam... but omicron, seemed to be no point).
- Adults: Chemical cocktail around the clock per friend recommendations. Every few hours as much as possible. Max ibuprofen per recommendations around the clock with or without symptoms (ie: advil cold/flu); Max acetaminophen per recommendations around the clock in between ibuprofen doses (ie: Tylenol, Buckley's cold/flu, Nyquil, Neocitran etc.); 200-500% daily recommended for vitamin C and Vitamin D.
- Regular taking of cough drops to prevent coughing/keep throat soothed.
- Vicks Vaporub as needed to keep the mucus draining.
- Hot beanbags for soreness and/or warming chest to improve breathing

The chemical cocktail thing helped a ton. We all felt way worse symptoms wise without it or if the cocktails were wearing off. We blew through what we had on hand fast and had to instacart/deliver more.

Post/current recovery:
We are taking things super conservative right now. We are hearing from some others who suspect we all got the worse omicron variant (BA.4 or BA.5).

A friend's friend got a literal heart attack after working out normally soon after symptoms subsided. Wife got freaked out by this worried about myocarditis so we are going to try and keep it to around 50-75% normal and ease back into normalcy for the next week or two.

Our situations is that we still have symptoms similar to typical mild cold/flu and ear infections at the moment even though we test negative. So we behave as such and don't try and over do it.

Kids are relatively normal with sniffles and cough similar to normal colds.

No idea on the long covid stuff. Fingers crossed there is none.

Overall not as bad as I had potentially worried for a worst case scenario, but also significantly worse baseline than expected. Covid blasted our family so bad and so fast, we as parents couldn't stagger the hit to take turns to take care of the kids like a normal illness. If grandma had not been normal ish to take care of the kids, that would have been a nightmare for the rest of us to deal with normal energy kids while feeling like simultaneously having the worst hangover + worst flu + exhaustion we've ever had.


God speed to anyone still dealing with Covid or will deal with. Covid sucks.

[direwolf]

Started feeling symptoms this past Friday and tested positive on Saturday. I'm feeling much better today, although I've still got a mild cough and my sense of smell is all but gone. Now everything I eat has a weird taste.

Anyone else here get the loss of smell thing? How long did it take to get it back?

[Minnie]

The person in this house we least wanted to see get COVID came up positive today, tested with a RA test at noon. She's the most high risk with her multiple chronic health conditions,so I'm quite worried but so far, she's hanging in there. She started feeling lousy over the weekend, but the tests came back negative. I was testing her every couple of days. It turned positive so quickly today, it was within seconds. I woke up feeling rough this morning, and I tested on Monday but it was negative then. I'll test again in a bit here. So far, everyone else seems fine but will test the other 2 tonight.

To date, her oxygen levels are staying optimal, which is good. It's been major sweating (soaking sweats), very sore throat, head congestion & pressure, chills, bad headache, bad earaches, increased POTS symptoms, full-on terrible body aches/pains, dry cough, nausea, decreased appetite, smell is decreased but I think that's due to the congestion/sinus stuff (she said she could smell the neighborhood skunk last night, so...), no loss of taste, mild cough (dry), low grade fever, increased issues with hypoglycemia, very very tired. Seems to be textbook symptoms for BA5.

Low appetite, increased sweating, nausea, and hypoglycemia are the symptoms we have to keep close tabs on. These will cause more issues for her with her metabolic disorder (MCADD), because it's a time of high catabolic stress, so I've been pushing fluids, salty foods & even some increased sugar, to counteract. We're having to do it in small bits here and there, she struggles more with nausea if she tries to eat bigger meals, so I'm having her "graze" frequently, rather than large meals spaced out.

Fingers crossed, this is the worst of it for her. Really don't relish any trips to emerg/the hospital, the way things have been going.

[REDVAN]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Started feeling symptoms this past Friday and tested positive on Saturday. I'm feeling much better today, although I've still got a mild cough and my sense of smell is all but gone. Now everything I eat has a weird taste.

Anyone else here get the loss of smell thing? How long did it take to get it back?

A week or two for full smell recovery...

[Fuzz]

Fingers crossed for ya, Minnie. Hope it clears up soon.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Started feeling symptoms this past Friday and tested positive on Saturday. I'm feeling much better today, although I've still got a mild cough and my sense of smell is all but gone. Now everything I eat has a weird taste.

Anyone else here get the loss of smell thing? How long did it take to get it back?

Hope it comes back quick. My moms has been gone for 2 months.